Into the Shadows of the Unsung War
by Xechs Marquise
Summary: This story that takes place before the events of the Dragon Campaign, before legends turned to myth, before history became legend, before the past was the future; and begets the fate of four unknown heroes of a struggle never told.
1. Chapter I

**Warning to Previous reading: **Re-read the story if you haven't finished all first three chapters. I went back and combined the first two into one chapter and cut the third into two different chapters since it was so long. Sorry for the confusion, and there may be double post of the same text, just ignore them if it did occur.

Disclaimer: This is the only time I'll probably say this but I don't own Legend of Dragoon or any of the back-story or its locations, I only own my characters and the events in which they follow. Also to note, this chapter and maybe the next won't, more than likely, be very interesting; their just introductions that need to be gotten out of the way.

Chapter I: In the Beginning…

We begin this journey with a young boy who can't be older than sixteen walking through a forest; he's wearing what used to be a white shirt but has been turned brown with the dirt and sweat that is rarely washed off. The shirt is also tearing and ripping at the seams and the hem at the bottom and looks to be that it wouldn't last another week, much less a month. His pants are in no better shape. Torn off at the knees to be made as shorts, they're just plain cotton-made, black-dyed pants with a rope used as a belt. He's very muscular for his age. His hair is much like his clothes, filthy and earthen-brown. His nose was broken years ago, you can tell by the bugled-curvature of it. From the blood coming out it, his nose may have been fractured again here recently. His brown eyes would be the only things that could shine on this pitiful boy if they weren't filled with vengeance and hate. With his knuckles bleeding a bit also, it appears he was just in a fight and now he's walking home in a fit of rage. Then out of nowhere he just stops and slams his fist into a nearby tree knocking many leaves and branches off.

As he removes his hand from the trunk he says, "I wish that was _his_ face now."

He then shakes the pain and pieces of bark out of his hand and continues walking down the beaten path to his home.

-

We change from this gloomy scene to another in which looks to take place in a small library. Not many people come here, mostly the librarians and a few people finding various books of potions or spells on health or superstitions and few looking to know the history of their ancestors. But of these few one catches your eye. A young man about seventeen or eighteen and wearing a seemingly very expensive, long dark green robe with intricate designs of semi-circles, ovals, waves, and other simple shapes. He has it girded at the waist with an also exquisitely designed piece of dark blue silk. He has short black hair, longer on the bangs than the back and dark brown almost black eyes. He's reading a huge book which must weight as much as a small child. To be so young, he seems to be very well educated and very wealthy.

One elderly, fairly-tall librarian in his mandatory black and white robe and scholarical cap comes up to him and says in a very harsh sounding voice, "So are you going to buy that book today boy or just thumb through it again."

The boy looks up with a bit of fear in his eyes, but only starts to laugh when he realizes who has confronted him.

"Hamon!" The boy then jumps up out of his chair to hug the old man. "It's been awhile since we last meet. How long has it been?"

"Two years if memory serves me correctly."

"What have you been up to here lately?" the young boy asks.

"Mostly just reorganization work in the northern city of Basil. I just moved back down here a few weeks ago, and how have you been Sean?" Hamon asks the boy, now known as Sean.

"Just my usual studies, mother's doing much better now, and …"

Well we'll leave these two to their discussions for now.

-

A fat, middle-aged man steps out onto a porch. You tell he's been drinking by the bottle he's carrying and the disgusting smell that follows him. He takes another swig of his bottle and then shouts, "Waurin! Git bak ere an swee es fwoor! Ou etter do yo choowes wight now!" You can barely understand the old man through his gibberish, drunken slurs. He takes one more gulp of fire water before he passes out on the porch.

As he is yelling and after he passes out, there's a teenage girl in her late teens running through the deep forest. She pushes branches and small trees aside as she hurries her escape.

"I'll stay gone this time you old drunk." The girl presumably Waurin, I mean Lauren, says mostly to herself trying to boost her courage and confection to run away.

-

Now we see a wondering stranger walking through a small town with his head down watching the ground as he slowly walks down the street. He's the oldest we've seen so far, around his early twenties. He's very well built, mostly like a solider or mercenary might be. He has long, waist-length, dark brown hair tied with a low fastener below his shoulders. You can't tell much from his facial expressions because of his long hair covering most of his face. He's dressed in an Asian style, sleeveless, black shirt with the front buttons running down his shirt offset to his left. As his hair as it sways back and forth, you can see a dark grey silhouette of a dragon perched on top of the moon on the back of his shirt. His pants match his shirt, black and loose-fitting with the same dragon symbol on each outside thigh. He has a long katana holstered to his side with the curved and edged side up. A dark grey belt is tied to his pants, which holds his katana on his left side and a money pouch on his right He holds most of his belongings in a bag tied to stick slung over his right shoulder. He holds his belonging in his right hand and steadies his sword in his left while walking down the street.

Across the street there's three men talking to each other. One of the men says, "Hey who's that walking down the street. He looks _pissed _at something."

Another man, with his crossed arms resting on his enormous chest, stands tall at well over seven feet tall. He just shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders.

The third man starts trembling in fear. He tries to step back but trips and falls on his butt. Pointing with his shaking hand he says, "A young man… dressed in black … with a symbol of a dragon on his back…" His words are filled with terror.

The first man says, "You don't mean… _he's_ the _'Black Massacre'_ everyone's been talking about lately?" When he said the words 'Black Massacre' the terrified man on the ground started to urinate on himself. The first man, mainly talking to no one in particular, then says, "I heard he got that name for slaying an entire city just because a few people saw his sword. I don't know about you but I'm getting out of this city as fast as I can!" Now he was starting to get scared.

The behemoth looked down in disgust at the coward sitting in his own waste. And then he then shook his head as he looked at his other friend. Finally he said, "I'll go get him _out_ of our town." and then started towards the wandering stranger.

"Wait! You'll kill us all! I have a wife and kid to think about!" the man on the ground pleaded with his friend.

The giant of a man came up to him and said, "Get out of our town now! You'll only bring danger and bad luck to us."

His sheer stature would make most men cower away but with out much of a upward glance the wondering stranger said to him, "I've only come for food and supplies, then I'll be on my way."

The giant replied, "No you'll leave n…"

And before he even finished the stranger struck him with lightning fast plunge of his left hand into the belly of the giant, leaving him gasping for air on the small town road. Afterwards the stranger just walked into a small store like nothing happened. He grabbed some food and water and other supplies that he needed and started to head towards the store owner.

The owner, who just saw the single blow knock out of his city's strongest warrior, started to apologize for the other man and said that he could have everything he wanted for free.

"Nonsense, you should never hold yourself responsible for other people's actions, especially a mindless grunt like him." He then pointed out the window at the giant now being drugged to the local doctor's house by his two other friends. He laid down a few coins of gold and silver on the counter before he started on his way out, just like he said he would.

-

The young woman named Lauren is now out of the woods and has found herself in a large city. She's a beautiful young lady especially in her white skirt and matching sleeveless shirt. Her hair is shoulder length sandy blonde with bright blue almost white eyes. A homeless man whistles at her, but she doesn't pay any attention to him, she's only interested in her new life in the big city.

She starts to go from shop to shop looking to see if anyone is in need of any help, but she can't find much of anything useful. She knows she can't get very far with the small bag of gold she stole from her unconscious father. So now before her new life begins she needs to find a job.

-

"Michael! What happened to you!" A middle-aged, slightly obese woman yells at her little boy in rags with a bloody nose and bloodied up knuckles.

"It was Jarak again. He wouldn't stop calling me names and then he started talking about you, so I had to punch him, but then all his friends held me down while Jarak got in a few free licks." Michael tried to tell the story to his mother like he was the hero and he had to do it.

His mother then grabs him by the arm and starts to scold him, "I don't care if he calls you _or_ me the devil himself, I don't want you in anymore fights you hear me Michael?"

"Yes ma'am." He fells kind of let down now and a bit embarrassed.

-

"Mother? Are you awake mother?" comes from the other side of a thick wooden door. The door leads to a very darkly lighted room, which only has one small lantern burning that's almost out of oil. An elderly woman rests in a large sized bed with four huge ringed-posts coming up from each of the legs. There's a canapé covering the top connected to each of the four posts with a small curtain of silk hanging down on each side. The woman starts to cough uncontrollably, this bed will probably become her death-bed soon enough.

She can barely get her words out between the coughs. "Sean…, is that you? …Yes I'm… awake. Come in, come in."

The young man from the Library and the man he was talking to come in through the door. The young man, Sean, is still wearing his favorite dark forest green outfit; but the old man, Hamon, is now dressed in a rather un-unique suit. The suit is fairly old with a brown sports jacket and matching trousers. He wears a white dress shirt underneath with a average black tie secured to his neck.

"Mother, do you remember Hamon? I meet him at the Library the other day and I've brought him over to see you."

"Hamon? Yes, how could I forget him." She coughs some a little after getting this last out.

Hamon leans over and kisses the old woman's forehead. "Silvia, it's been awhile. _Too_ long actually."

"Well, I'll leave you two to your discussions about the years. Mother, I'll be down at the fishing pond. If you need me, just send Hamon or one of the servants to come fetch me." After this, Sean bows and exits the room in a gentleman's fancy.

-

Suddenly it's the sound of plates breaking and many 'I'm sorry's and the sound of angry customers. The beautiful young lady known as Lauren has finally found a job as a waitress at a local dinner and bar, but things aren't going too well for our young heroine. It seems she's about to be fired.

"Lauren, get over here." shouts a balding, overweight man behind a counter, obviously the store owner. He wears a white tank top that's drenched in his yellow sweat, his apron is filthy with grease and animal guts, and he appears also be the cook though if you saw him on the street you'd suspect him to be a butcher.

Lauren is now dressed in her official waitress outfit composed of an eggshell white dress and spotless apron. She steps over her new mess of broken glass and worthless food and starts walking over to the owner with her head held low.

"I'm sorry sir, I'm just _very_ nervous. I'll try to…"

"Lauren, that's the fifth plate you'll broke in two days. You're a very attractive young lady, so you need to be with the customers, but if you can't learn to hold on to the plates, I'm going to have to fire you."

"No sir, I'll try harder. Yo… you just can't fire me, I _need _this job."

"Then you'll just have to work harder."

"I will sir."

"I hope so… you your sake. Now get back work."

"Yes sir." She then turns around and goes to help the other waitress that's started to pick up the glass and clean up the food.

"Sorry you had to clean up my mess." Lauren says to her new coworker.

"Don't worry about it. I started out just like you; breaking a bunch of plates too."

"I bet you didn't set a record with five plates in two days." Lauren kind of laughs and then looks down in shame.

She starts to laugh a bit herself then replies, "No, can't say I was _that _bad. But just stay with it and I bet you'll get the hang of it…. Oh my god!" With the last bit the waitress drops a piece of the broken plate.

"What's wrong?" Lauren asks with a strange bewildered look on her face.

"Hey! Stop breaking stuff over there you two!" The manger shouts again.

"But sir, look!" The unknown waitress says and points out the small window across the room.

Both the manger and Lauren look pass the customers and out the window. They don't believe their eyes though. There's a huge whirlwind tornado right outside their café.

-

"Bye mom. I'm going on to Mr. Iros's house." Michael says as he grabs a small piece of toast and starts heading out of the kitchen and to the door of their small cottage home.

"Hey, why you going so early? You don't want some more breakfast?" his mother asks him while she's still cooking the rest of the family a large morning meal.

"Mr. Iros said that he had something very special planned for us today."

"Sooo, you _do_ like learning all that neat stuff, don't cha?" after this she puts down her pot on a cool eye and stops cooking for a moment. She then averts her motherly stare at the young boy, which seems to paralyze him in his tracks.

Michael then turns and starts pleading with his mother, "_Mom_, I've got to go."

"I knew you'd like it." She lets him off and watches him start to leave again. But then the other day reoccurs in her mind and she shouts, "Hey!" When he looked back she says, "No more fights with Jarak now. You hear me?"

"Yes ma'am." He lowers his head with a mixture of disappoint and embarrassment. Then he starts to leave again, but is stopped yet again.

"Hey, you not going to say goodbye to _me_?" A tall, kind of skinny man says while coming out of one of the back bedrooms.

"Daddy!" Michael runs and hugs his father and then says, "I thought you had already left for work, why are you still here?" he has a very confused look upon his face because he very rarely gets to see his father at all, because he always works double shifts and often triple shifts at work to support his family.

"They shut the mines down yesterday after work. There was a collapse and one of the other miners was killed and many more injured." He tries to shake the memory out of his head. "I knew that man too; he was a good worker with a good heart."

"So are you going to be here tomorrow?" He asks without even wondering about his father's other coworkers. "If so I can ask Mr. Iros if I can stay home and we ca…"

"I'll be here, but you need to keep to your studies. You don't want to end up like me working for the highest bidder and working in the lowest pits. You and your little sister will come out better than I did; even if I have to break my back getting ya'll there."

"But _dad_…"

"No buts now, you need to be getting to class don't you?"

"Yes sir." He says this with much disappointment in his voice.

"Well head off, we'll see you when you get back." Both his mom and dad wave to him as he walks off into the woods onto class.

-

Now we follow the dark clothed wander again. He's in the middle of a barren prairie, with not much grass or trees growing around him. He's sitting at a open fire and eating some of the food he bought. Just before he finishes his meal it starts to rain a bit, putting out his fire

"_Well better get going, don't want to get caught out here when it really hits. Now where is the nearest city?"_ He thinks to himself for a moment then remembers there's a map in his bag. He searches through the bag, which has grown but lost its stick, until he finds the map. He tries to keep the map, and all the other contents of the bag, as dry as possible but without much success.

"_Oh yeah, the town over there in the mountains, Dracils I think is what's called."_

He puts the map back into the sack and picks up a small circular-pyramid shaped straw hat and starts to strap it on his chin. "_I'm glad I made this now_." He puts his katana back on his side and throws the bag over his right shoulder and starts heading south towards the mountain range in the distance.

-

After an hour or so of trekking through the woods, Michael gets to Mr. Iros's village. But when he gets closer, he sees a bunch of people gathered together and looking off into the sky. When he gets up there to them, one of them says in a very frightening voice, "Look at the sky! Is that SMOKE?"

"It is!" Shouts one.

"We're all going to die!" Hollers another.

Many more just run off yelling at the top of their lungs; because, you see they lived in a very dense forest and even the smallest of uncontrolled fires could burn down an entire village in mere hours.

Well when Michael noticed the smoke was coming from the west he started running back home. _"Oh no! It's coming from the direction of our house! I have to get back there and warn mom and dad and sis."_

**AN:** Well now that you read it, review it please. Tell me how good, or bad, I'm doing. This is my first fanfic so please help me out a bit. If you liked it say so in you review; if not, say so in your review. But like I said the other chapters will, hopefully, be a lot more interesting than these introductive paragraphs. I also thought it would be better to just leave you hanging there a bit. Just tell me how I'm doing, please.


	2. Chapter II

**Warning to Previous reading: **Re-read the story if you haven't finished all first three chapters. I went back and combined the first two into one chapter and cut the third into two different chapters since it was so long. Sorry for the confusion, and there may be double post of the same text, just ignore them if it did occur.

Disclaimer: Warning! This chapter contains mild abusive language and slightly - medium amount of blood and gore. I recommend that you be at least 15 years old to read the following. If you are any younger please let a parental adviser read this chapter before you to make sure if you are able to continue in the mature developments that follow. From now on I'll make this announcement **"Warning Mature Content!"** if there is any adult content in the following Chapters. I'll announce now that I will try to refrain from any violet language and any gore will be kept to a minimum, take note that it will be kept to a minimum but not entirely took out. No sexual scenes will appear in this writing but sexual comments (gender insults) and/or references (Kissing/making out) may or may not, but if so it will be kept clean for immature audiences.

Chapter 2: The Gods Created…

As the manger gasps, Lauren drops the last whole surviving plate, but he doesn't even notice that such small thing now. Moments after the initial astonishment, the aging manger finally came to and announced to the now frightful group of customers that there was a back door and that they should all get to the back. But as the huddled masses raced towards the back, Lauren looked back and saw a small child hiding under a table on the front wall.

Her manger yelled, "What in the Sam-Hell are you doing!", as she started to go back for the young child.

"There's a boy under that table!" she shouted back.

As she said this, one of the women heading towards the back started looking around and then finally out to the front and saw the boy. "Luke!" the woman cried as she started to run back to the front to get her son. But just as she screamed, all the windows on the front wall burst into thousands of pieces as the tornado slowly inched closer to the small shop. Lauren was knocked off her feet and sustained some minor cuts on her hands from the glass shards when she tried to brace herself when she fell. The woman, after recovering from the blast of air and glass, started towards the front again, only this time the manger and his assistant cook stopped her before she could get very far.

"Ma'am, you need to get to the back of the store! Lauren will get your son, it's too dangerous to go back now!" the assistant tried to say as calmly as possible over the roaring winds that deafened all the people now. But still the mother tried to fight through the two men, to get her son back.

Lauren tried to get up again and make her way to the boy. But as she started to stand, a new gust of wind came in and knocked her down again. She cut her hands and leg some more, but she tried to push the pain aside for the moment and head for the boy. She took her apron off and tore it in two and used it as gloves and tucked her blouse under her knees and started to crawl to the table.

As she made it to the table, the mother stopped fighting the two cooks as much but they still needed to hold her. When Lauren got to the table, she noticed that the boy had a firm grip on the central table leg and he wasn't going to let go anytime soon on his own. She glanced to the front wall, only a half a foot now, and it was starting to buckle and pull back towards the whirlwind monstrosity outside. She glanced back at the boy and knew she couldn't pry him off the table leg so she started to plead with him.

"Come here little boy, and I'll take you back there were its safe." But the boy only ignored her.

She looked back to the screaming mother and then said, "Look over there, your mother desperately wants you to come over there. Come with me and I'll take you to your mother." The boy then finally takes his eyes off the pole and searches for his mother in the back. When he sees her, he starts to cry a bit, and then finally nods his head. Without hesitating Lauren reaches out to the boy and takes him off his safe-pole. She then ties his shirt cuffs so that he won't get cut as badly from the now cascading glass on the floor. The mother in the back finally gives up in exhaustion and the two men try to pull her up off her knees and wipe away the tears streaming down her face, but they too are worn out from the strenuous work of holding her back and can't seem to pick her up very well.

They only get a few feet from the table when Lauren looks back at the front wall. It's swaying back and forth to the rhythm of the winds and forces of the storm as it gets closer and closer. She sees that they are only about half way to the back and notices that the winds have calmed down a bit. She knows that this may be there only chance, so she picks the boy up and tells him to go run to his mother. By the time she gets to her feet, the son and mother embrace in their now precious bond. She then starts to run towards the back but only takes one step before the front wall eventually collapses and the full force of the windstorm can be witnessed. The explosion of the wall causes Lauren to fall to the ground one more time. But as she tries to pick herself up, the winds pull her out of the coffee house and onto the streets with the murderous winds of the tornado.

Before she is sucked into the void of the cyclone, she grabs one of the metal poles still anchored to the ground which were used to strengthen the walls of the café. All the people still in the half of the room still standing gasp in horror as Lauren dangles from the fragile pole for dear life.

The cuts from her hands were now starting to bleed through the apron-gloves and began to loosen her grip on the pole. As she looked up at the others in the back, her heart broke into a million pieces, because they had given up on her and everyone started heading out through the back. She knew there was no way that they could help her now, but still her heart ached at the sight of them leaving her to die.

She started to slip some more on the pole, now she only had about a few inches left to go before she plunged into the swirling abyss behind her. Knowing she only had precious few minutes left she glanced around and noticed that she was extremely lucky to have survived this long, as pieces of wood and brick and metal and every other piece of loose material was flying around her now, barely missing her rag-doll body being swung around like paper in this dismal array of outrageous winds. She then decided to just concentrate all her mind on the few inches of pole she had left. Because if luck was truly on her side, she just might have a chance to outlast the tornado until it eventually ran out of steam and dissipated. So she focused all her mind on the pole and it had seemed she had stopped slipping as much, but then…

-

Now we are back with the lone mysterious traveler. He still wears the straw hat, but it seems to have served no proposed as he is still soaked from head to toe. The rain has slackened down a bit so he undoes the hat from his head, but keeps it tied to his neck and throws it onto his back. His bag is gone now, probably because it got too wet and he had to ditch it.

"_Only a little more 'til the town."_ He thinks to himself as he hikes up the semi-difficult mountain path to the small town up ahead.

After a few more moments of trekking up the hills he finally gets to a point where he can see the city entrance. The city isn't very big, only a half square mile at most, with mainly dried clay and brick walls. You can tell that it use to be a fort of some kind as the city walls reach well over fifty feet high, and not to mention it's location on the base of a mountain range made it even harder to get to.

As he neared closer to the town entrance, the stranger looked up into the skies. He saw one of the strangest things he could remember; the clouds were swirling together forming a huge dark black cloud just over the city.

"_Better hurry up and get to some shelter, that doesn't look too good." _So he then picked up his pace a little and headed onto the city.

As he got to the enormous entrance, he could _hear_ the clouds above him. They were making a small crackling sound, mixed with sound of swirling winds. Then the wanderer looked up at the clouds, and saw that he was pretty much in the center of the clouds now. And before he could head on or even look away, a flash of lightning struck and hit him squarely on his back, destroying the straw hat and ripping most of the back of the dragon shirt he had on. But this strike wasn't just instantaneous; it was also never ending as it hit the poor man and by no means let loose its grip.

"Oh my God!" someone inside the town shouted. Then others around them stared on in horrific sight. Few of them had ever seen lightning actually hit someone, and never had it been a continuous bolt.

The power of the bolt was so strong that the man's knees started to buckle. But before he could fall to the ground, another strike struck him in the same place on his back. As the two currents moved from the skies, into the wanderer's back, down his spine, and into his feet and finally the ground, the sere strength of the twin bolts started to lift him off his feet and into the air.

As the helpless fool stayed stranded in the air by the bolts, one elderly townsfolk pleaded, "Someone go help that man." And as he looked around he could see that no one was going to go help him in fear that they too might get struck with a third power from the sky. But as he looked back at the man, he could tell it was finally starting to end.

It seemed as though the stormy clouds above were starting to lose its eternal energy, as the wandering man began to descend back down to the ground and the bolts started to lessen in size and strength, until the entire electric phenomenon ended. And when it was evident that it was over, two men rushed over to help him. The wandering stranger shakes his head a bit before getting up and says, "N..No, uh, I..I'll be Oooo…" and then passes out. The two men pick him up and drag him inside the city.

-

As Michael ran back through the forest to get to his house, he suddenly stopped and looked at a small vaguely worn path through some even deeper woods. He remembered his parents and Mr. Iros telling him to never go in there by his self, and he could even picture his mother ranting and raving for weeks about how he went there, even it was to warn them of a forest fire. He knew if he went down the path he was going, it would take him another hour to get home. But if he took the other way, he could get there in just a few minutes. So he looked strongly down the beaten path and then down the less traveled one, until he finally made up his mind to chance his mother's scorns and ran down the forbidden road.

Except for being cut and scrapped by branches and limbs, because of the narrower walk way, he couldn't understand why they told him to never go down this path. A few branches here and there were so tough that they actually broke the skin and he started to bleed a bit from the shoulders and arms.

After about ten minutes of trudging through the deep path and sustaining some more minor cuts on his sides and legs, he could see the smoke coming from the chimney on his house. _"Oh, god please, let that just be smoke from the chimney."_ He could also see that the path got wider just a little further down, so he started to pull his way through even harder. In the process he didn't really notice, but as he marched harder through the weeds, he was also pulling blooms of flowers down. He did soon notice this, as petals were falling all around him. And he caught himself saying, "This would be a beautiful sight on any other day." And then the pollen from all the flowers started to make a hazy mist around him. He stopped looking at the gorgeous scene and started to get back to his mission.

He soon made it out of the vines of overgrown weeds and into the slightly less cramped lodging of the new path, which he could now run through and get home in a few moments. But as he started to head off, he began getting dizzy. "Woowoh", he stated as he began to stumble. He then got very tired and could barely keep his eyes open. He took a few steps before the poison took complete control of him and he passed out.

**A/N:** How was it? I've separated chapter 3 into two chapters and the first two into one chapter so it might be a confusing at parts cause I'm cutting and pasteing. But please review, flamers are welcome too. Just write down what you think please.


	3. Chapter III

**Warning to Previous reading: **Re-read the story if you haven't finished all first three chapters. I went back and combined the first two into one chapter and cut the third into two different chapters since it was so long. Sorry for the confusion, and there may be double post of the same text, just ignore them if it did occur.

Disclaimer: Warning! This chapter contains mild abusive language and slightly - medium amount of blood and gore. I recommend that you be at least 15 years old to read the following. If you are any younger please let a parental adviser read this chapter before you to make sure if you are able to continue in the mature developments that follow. From now on I'll make this announcement **"Warning Mature Content!"** if there is any adult content in the following Chapters. I'll announce now that I will try to refrain from any violet language and any gore will be kept to a minimum, take note that it will be kept to a minimum but not entirely took out. No sexual scenes will appear in this writing but sexual comments (gender insults) and/or references (Kissing/making out) may or may not, but if so it will be kept clean for immature audiences.

Chapter 3: Their New Protectors…

As the stranger lay in bed, his mind was off in distant memories…

The scene was very dark, for it was nightfall. He was in a small village, walking along looking for someone or something.

He flashed forward; he was looking in a small house made of sticks and straw. Confusion clouded his mind. As he looked inside, there was no one home. Just scattered messes of food and clothes strewn about. He left.

Flash: He was at a water-well, looking down inside. The water was gone. There wasn't a soul around.

Flash: As he stood in the center on the small town, he looked all around. Nothing. When he started to give up hope of finding someone, a small boy came up to him and asked, "Who are you, mister?"

"Just passing through." He replied.

"Are you here for the festival?" The young boy asked.

"Is that where everyone is?" He questioned.

"Yes, sir. It's the anniversary of the founding of the village. Come I show you." The boy grabbed him by the hand and ran off.

Flash: Dozens of people were dancing and celebrating, and having a merry time. Explosions of light and sparkles lit up the night sky. Men were drinking and women were singing and children were playing. And as the wanderer started to feel at peace, everything started to darken. Darken to the point where all he could see was the endless black nothingness. The sounds of joy and laughter suddenly turned into screams of pain and fear. He couldn't open his eyes, he couldn't open his eyes. And the screams continued and terror followed. All he could do was listen in horror. He could hear bones breaking and lives ending and all that he was able to do was listen, he couldn't open his eyes. And when he tried to move in the darkness he would get more disorientated than he already was. The screams began again as he could feel warmth, warmth as from a fire.

Finally the screaming and chaotic terror ended. Now all he could hear was nothing. Complete silence. And now he started to regain his vision. Blurry at first, as he could make out the village homes as they were brightly lit up. But as the vision came clear he could tell that all the houses were set ablaze. As he started to run to the well for water, he could felt something on his hands. His dark eyes opened widely as he saw that his hands were covered in blood. When he looked around again, he saw the bodies of all the townsfolk lying lifeless on the ground; most of them were decapitated and desecrated as their bodies laid disemboweled and dislimbered and strewn about like sands in the wind. The ground was covered in so much blood, that it seemed as though the village was founded on a red swamp. _"Who could have done this?"_ kept running through the stranger's mind as he witnessed the end of this senseless slaughter. And when he lowered his head in agony, he noticed the blood stained sword in his hands. He dropped the sword and backed away fast repeating "No", "No", "I didn't", "No", until he tripped over one of the lifeless bodies. As he turned around, he noticed it was the small boy who helped him. Tears and fears started to boil up in his eyes. He started to scream.

"AAHHHH!" and he sat up out of bed.

"Its ok son, you'll be alright. You were having a bad dream." An old man said, sitting across the room.

As he looked down at his hands, the blood was gone. He noticed that he was bandaged up around the waist and shoulder. "Did you do this?" he asked.

"Yes. After you survived the miracle that happened yesterday, two of the town members helped you in here and I bandaged up as much as I could tell was injured."

"What do you mean 'as much as you could tell was injured'? Aren't you supposed to be a doctor of some kind?"

"Yes, I am the city doctor. But you sustained no visual injuries of any kind. There was no evidence that you had any internal bleeding or wounds either."

"Then what's the bandages for? You some kind of quack?" He asked as he took off the bandages.

"No, no. They're just there for precautionary proposes only. The only thing you have to show for it is two scars on your back. They are located right along your shoulder blades. I could tell that those scars where new by referencing them to your older scars." And he then pointed at various locations on his body where you can tell that blades of some kind were used to create older, healing scars. "They look like burn marks, but also look like slicing scars. I just don't know what to think about them or the absence of any other injuries."

The stranger started to get up out of bed, and looked around. "Where's my shirt?"

"Oh, yeah. Well, the lightning unfortunately destroyed most of it."

"So you're saying I have no shirt."

"No, I took it to the town's finest tailor. He said that he'd repair it, free of charge on account of what you went through."

"So?" He looked at the doctor. But the doctor had a confused look on his face. "Where is it?"

"Oh! Yes, oh course. What was I thinking?" The old man asked himself, as he walked away into another room. He returned shortly with the shirt folded into a neat little square, and then gave him his shirt back. "The tailor told me to tell you that the design may not be perfect because most of it was ruined and he had to create the rest from his imagination. He also said that if you wished he would fix it back like it was meant to be, if you bring it back over there when you got better.

He took the shirt and unfolded it and held it out in front of him. He turned it around and looked at the back. It wasn't perfect but it did have a dragon sitting on a moon, but it was the wrong color. "Close enough. I might go back after a while to thank him, where is he?"

"Just down the street, you can't miss it. He has a big sign with the name of his shop on it, 'Tailorsmith'."

"Thanks old man." He then got up and put on his shirt. "How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing, it's on the house."

"No, old man, I can at least pay for the supplies and room for the night. Here take this." He then took out five gold coins and laid them on the table as he started to leave. "Wait. Where's my sword?"

"Oh it's in the next room by the door as you leave. Hope you have a better day today than yesterday."

"Yes, I do too." As he left he picked up his sword and tied it back to his side.

When he stepped outside he saw many people walking down the streets, going about their day as if nothing happened yesterday. Children played in the streets while their mothers shopped at the local shops. Then he imagined his dream again and shook it off. He looked down the street and saw the sign the old doctor was talking about, so he headed toward it to pay the man for his services.

When he walked inside the doors, the man recognized him immediately. "Hey you're the man who got struck by lightning yesterday aren't you?"

"Yes. I'd like to…"

Before he could finish the tailor cut him off. "Are you ok? You look alright. How'd I do on the shirt?"

"I'm fine and the shirts ok, I'd like to thank you and pay you for your services."

"No. It's on the house. But was the design good enough, I couldn't figure some of it out."

"It's fine."

"But it's not right either is it?"

"Well actually no, it's the wrong color and the dragon needs to look like this." He then pointed down at his pants to the symbol there.

"Oh, if I knew you had the same design on the pants I would have used them as reference. Here put this on and let me borrow yours."

"Its fine, you don't have to do that."

"No I messed it up worse than if I'd have left the symbol off completely. I should be done in about an hour, just go shop for a little while and I'll come tell you when I'm done."

He didn't really want to, but the tailor wasn't giving him much choice. So he did as he was told. He went shopping for a little while to re-supply on rations and water. He also bought a new map. It was getting about the hour mark, when the tailor came up to him and said that his clothes were done. They then headed back to his shop. But on the way, he heard a child scream. As he looked over in the direction he heard the scream, he saw an ogre stomping into the city. Without thinking, he ran over to the fiend and slid down under the ogre and drew his sword and pierced the devil in the bottom the jaw and up through its entire head. Blood ran down the ogre's head and down the blade and covered the wanderer.

As he threw the dead fiend over and started to wipe off his blade before sheathing it, a small girl ran up and began to cry. The small child launched into a fit of wailing and screaming. Her mother ran up and held the child in her arms and carried her away.

As she was walking away she stated, "What have you done, you murderer!" at the stranger. The foreigner just stared at them with complete confusion. As they walked away, the girl gave a tearful stare at him. The face of the lifeless boy in his dream replaced her face for a spilt second.

The tailorsmith came up behind him soon after. He whispered, "Come with me." So he followed the man out of the city.

"Here's your clothes." And he handed him the folded pile of cloth.

"What was that all about?"

"That ogre wasn't a fiend; it was the small child's friend. Well more like an overgrown pet."

"But I heard a scream."

"Yes, I did too. It was probably snake or something; we have many wild snakes finding their way into the town. Most are not poisonous but they do scare the children."

"Oh. Then I'm deeply sorry. Here take this and see to it that the pet gets a proper burial." He then pulled out a hand full of silver coins. "And this is for you." He said as he pulled out a few gold ones as well.

"No I can't take…"

"Just take it, it's the least I can do for the irreparable thing that I've done."

"You are a very kind man sir. Thank you very much." The tailorsmith then took all the money given to him and went back into the city.

The wanderer then looked across the horizon and then thought about what the man just said. _"I wish I could see it that way."_ And then he continued on his journey.

-

He started to wake now. Vision blurry at first, but he soon gained most of his sight. "Ugh? What happened?" Michael said as he started to sit up. When he got up he noticed a wild dog chewing at his shoes, so he picked up a nearby stick and scared the dog away. It took a moment but he finally got to his feet and looked back in the shrubbery. The hazy mist was gone and the ground, instead of the air, was covered with flower petals and blooms.

"The flowers, they must have been poisonous or something. That has to be why I passed out. And if I hadn't of woke up now that dog might have eaten me alive, maybe that's why everyone told me not to go wandering in here." He had pieced enough of it together for now, so he started back running to his house.

When he passed the final corner of trees, he could finally see his house. And to his fears, it wasn't the chimney that was smoking. The path of the wild fire must have been large, because most of their yard and surrounding woodland was also on fire. He stood there for a few moment transcended in horror. Then he heard his mother scream. This broke his fearful train of thought and he ran around to the front. He saw his mother standing in front of the house crying and screaming. He ran over to her and tried to shout over her moaning, "Mom! Where's Dad and sis?"

"Michael! Thank goodness you're safe. Your dad and Melanie are still in the house!"

Without hesitation, he ran off into the house while his mother continued her wailing. As he stepped into the house he could see the flames burning all around him. They went up the walls and over the ceiling. It was extremely hot inside the house as Michael started to pour sweat. He looked around and just about every room and hallway was filled with the chaotic fires. "Dad! Sis! Where are you!" Nothing, he feared the worse. But then he heard coughing from one of the rooms down the hall. He ran as fast as he could to get there. The door was shut and was slightly ablaze, so he stood back and kicked the door down. As the smoke cleared he saw his father lying on the floor. He rushed out to him. He tried to wake him up, he couldn't stir him now. So he struggled to hold him up by the arm and dragged him out of the house.

By the time they got in the living room and only had a few more feet until they reached door, his father awoke and screamed in pain. When Michael looked down, his father's legs were on fire. He suddenly dropped him and grabbed a nearby rug that had somehow survived the flames and started to put out the fire on his legs. After he put out the blazes, he picked up his dad again but this time his father could help now that he was conscience. They finally reached outside, as his mother came running over and hugged them both. And as Michael started to run back inside, his dad yelled, "I think your sister's in the basement in the back." He took this advice and ran with it, literally.

When he got back to the door though, a pier fell and blocked most of the way in, or out. He took a few steps back and ran and jumped back in the flaming house. He rushed into the kitchen and through the door lending to the basement. "Sis! Melanie! Are you down here!" As he started to give up and go search the rest of the house, he heard a voice whisper his name. He looked in the corner that he heard it from and saw his sister lying half dead on the floor. He jumped down and picked her up in his arms and started dashing out of the house. When he got back up to the kitchen he noticed that the back way out of the house was completely blocked now. _"Well I've have to run and jump over the pier in the front then."_ He thought to himself, but by now he wasn't as nervous and fearful because he knew that it was almost over. He sprinted into the living room, but the fire in front of the door had gotten a lot larger while he was downstairs. He looked around, but there was no other way out.

"Dad!" he screamed. And as his father came around the front he screamed, "Catch!" He then took his now much helpless little sister by the shirt collar and pants waist and chunked her out of house threw the front door and over the flaming pier. His dad barely caught her and fell to the ground. But before his father could ask what he was going to do, he had done ran off into other parts of the house trying to find a way out. He ran to each of the rooms, all were infernos he couldn't even see through. Then he ran back to the kitchen to see if there was anyway to move the flaming pile of roofing that was blocking his way, there wasn't. He then stumbled into the living room, the smoke now starting to get to him. It seemed as if everything started to run trough his head now, now that he began to believe it was the end. But he didn't fell sorry, or pain, or fear. He felt much happiness and relief now that his family was safe. He looked around and saw that the flames riding along the walls were swirling together. _"This is odd."_ He thought but just as quickly decided he'd take this secret to his grave in a few moments. He noticed that it was getting much hotter, something he suspected would happen. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on anything else. The way the wind felt on his face in the middle of summer. All the scoldings he got from his mother and now how he missed them. He remembered the fight he got into the other day, and suddenly realized how pointless it was. He remembered so many other things and how he would have made up for them, but the heat was getting too hazardous now and he couldn't think of anything except about how much he was sweating now. When he opened his eyes, the entire room was engulfed in flames, this was too much for him to handle as he jumped up and started to scurry about. But this was a bad idea, as it lead to his pants catching on fire and he began to run around even more. The pain was too much for him to bear as the screamed to the top of his lungs, while his parents listened on in absolute horror outside. When he could open his eyes all he saw were flames, and all he felt was intense heat and extreme pain. He felt as if his entire being was set ablaze and that he himself was the raging inferno of hell, and only getting hotter and hotter. He eventually couldn't bare it anymore and passed out from the pain.

-

"Do I want to fish with rods or grabble?" Sean asked himself as he was heading out of the giant house. When he got to the shed, he decided to go fishing with a rod, because he didn't fell like getting all wet and dirty and just having to clean up again after he came back inside. So he grabbed a rod and reel and some worms for bait, and started down to the pond in the back.

He started to put a worm on the hook as he looked up and noticed that it was a very clear night and he could see just about every star in the sky. It was a double full moon tonight as one moon tried to hide behind the other. He went back to his rod and reel. He threw baited worm out into the pond. It landed right in the middle of the pond. The ripples echoed throughout the pond. They caused tiny waves to appear and as they bounced off the shore and headed back to the center, Sean started to notice the small occurrence. The ripples got larger and larger, until they finally met in the middle of the fishpond. When all the waves collided, they formed a small bubble shaped 'hill' in the middle of the pond as a tiny drop jumped up out of the water. Sean looked on in amazement. The one tiny water drop didn't fall back down after it climaxed, no it just stood in the air for moments as Sean still stared in awe and put down his pole. The small drop seemed to be drawing the 'hill' of water up out of the pond, but as the 'hill' started to come out it only got bigger and bigger. The lump of water in the center got so enormous that it started to pull at the shore lines and pull up the entire pond. Sean just stood there with utter disbelief. That disbelief slowly began to turn into fear as the entire pond was now hovering yards away from the ground.

"I must be dreaming!" Sean finally spoke up.

The ball of water just stood there for what seemed like an eternity, before a small cylinder tube of water emerged out of the side. It appeared as though it were looking for something as it swayed back and forth in mid-air. It stopped as it pointed straight at Sean. He panicked and began to run away, but the cylindrical arm grabbed him before he could get away and sucked him into the ball of water. He was stuck smack dap in the middle of this monstrous device. He tried to fight and swim his way out, but it was like the arm think was all around him and holding him in place. He started to panic again as he started to run out of breath. But before he could think of anything to do, the spherical water instantly froze into ice, freezing Sean in place in the center of the sphere. Fear was the abundant emotion going through his body. He couldn't move one inch of his body, He tried his fingers, hands, and arms; failed, failed, and failed. He couldn't move is legs, he couldn't even contract any of his muscles. He was even denied the act of exhaling, or even moving his eyes. As he laid there suspended in this icy prison that would become his grave, he could feel the energy or maybe heat swirling around the huge ice sphere. But as the energy swirling around him got faster and faster and was closing in on him, everything started to go dark as Sean began to black out from lack of oxygen.

-

Lauren held on to the pole with all here might. But out of nowhere her luck ran out, as a wooden crate came flying by and knocked her off her last tread of life. Her screams could be heard by the crowd that had to leave her stranded. They echoed and intensified her screams by several degrees. Lauren made three trips around the cyclone before it swallowed her up.

She looked around inside the tornado and saw the legions of sand and dirt mixed with all the wood and bricks that were destroyed outside. It seemed as though the lifeless fiend was pulling her closer into it's womb. She soon reached the center and emerged from the clouds of millions. And she could see clearly now, as the dirt and sand and other objects weren't flying around in the center. It was just tranquil harmony surrounded by chaotic destruction. In the very center where she was now was one small twine of air running from the ground all the way up into the skies. She was swirling around slowly now that she was close to the ground, but as she was ascended into the skies, the twirling became more rapid and faster. She got very dizzy, very fast and lost all senses as she was spun around like a child toy-like top.

On the outside of the hurricane, the villagers came out of the shop, as the villain of chaos chased its way out of the city. As though the tornado knew what it came to get and now that it had it was going to leave the rest of them in peace. Most of the survivors blessed the ground and air and their respective gods for life and pardons of life.

**A/N:** So how was this one? I thought it was a lot better, but a tad bit to long. I might rearrange the first few chapters latter. If so, I'll post it in the Disclaimer at the top. Now please review and tell me what was wrong or good or what you thought about it please. Oh and how was the dream episode with the wanderer? It was a lot better in my head, but I just couldn't accurately portray it in words, kind of like most real dreams.


End file.
